So winter is officially gone!  It’s over and the weather has been gorgeous here in Iowa.  It makes me long for the beach and the river.  I just unpacked and polished up the old kayak last weekend in preparation of the first float trip of the season.  One thing that has always been a concern in my quest to document my summertime fun is this question, “Will my camera survive the brutal punishment a weekend with Paul out in the world may bring?”

If this sounds similar to your experience, or if you are rough in general on camera gear, you may want to check out these super durable cameras available through Porters.  Seems like four out of every five cameras I see come into the shop for repair have damage to the lens assembly.  Turns out these broken cameras are getting dropped or kicked out of hands and they fall right on the lens.  Here is a collection of cameras that have lenses that stay within the chassis of the camera and will likely survive being kicked around.  Another benefit of this construction is that the manufacturer’s are able to seal off the doors, switches and knobs to make them waterproof.  Waterproof also means dustproof, juice proof, soda proof, etc.

Check these bad boys out:

We sold a handful of cameras of this style to the Fire Department a few years ago here in Cedar Rapids.  Not long after they purchased them, the devestating floods of 2008 parked those cameras underwater at their downtown firehouse for a few months.  Once the water receded,  the fellas came in to buy new battery chargers so they could return the units to service, amazing!

Yeah, so check out the specs on the Fujifilm XP-50.  We have special closeout deals on the Olympus 8010.  The Nikon AW100 is a personal favorite, and this Nikon S30 is also really budget friendly.  The new design for Canon’s offering on the D20 looks pretty cool too!

Oh, and here is another awesome addition for those of you packing your DSLR gear for trekking through the world.  It’s awesome to have tripod, right?  But they can be so darn big and clunky that we often neglect to bring them along and our scenic shots tend to suffer.  Check out this ultra light Carbon Fiber tripod C423W from ProMaster!  It is small, durable and super light like all the other Carbon Fiber pods, but WAY less expensive!

Well, get out there and have some fun this summer, but don’t forget to grab some shots!

cheers,

Paul